About Me

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17 thoughts on “About Me”

your take on the audition was just brilliant. i sooooo appreciate your thoughts on and attitude towards this entire situation. i have the opposite problem in the philippines where producers find it acceptable to cast asians in western roles and have them prance about with the fakest of accents and the thickest of eyeliners…and the performers themselves care little if they have complete credibility or not.
the so-called magic of the theater where anyone can be anything holds true PROVIDED it is staged well and directed to protect the spirit of the script rather than the self-delusion of the performer. until then, it’s a school production.

We entered the suckiest business imaginable. And I say that as an actor WITH a job.
You are clearly REALLY smart and, I’m sure, equally talented. There is only one way to survive this career: instant, selective amnesia. The minute the audition is over, it never happened… unless you get an offer, of course.
Which you will. Just not this time.

I agree… rejection sucks. Why I opted out of the modelling world – I just didn’t have it in me to take all those rejections, even worse, (to me) being rejected solely on how you look…
And I know the girls of color STILL get overlooked at an alarming rate.
I don’t know why, it just sucks.

Your feelings are completely justified. Regardless of all the “its art” arguments you can not argue that this would not and does not happen in the other direction. If I show up at a casting that stated “caucasian women”, it would be frowned upon and I could be the BEST in the room but you are damn sure that my ethnicity would not be ignored..

Also note, that they would NEVER cast a “white” actor for the role of a slave or immigrant worker of some sort but if its a lead they will consider it…because somehow there are plenty of “non white” performers available to play background and supporting roles but somehow when we get to the lead there just aren’t enough around…hmmmmmmm

It doesn’t seem like newspapers take op-ed pieces that have been posted elsewhere online, otherwise I would consider it.

Thanks for reading. Please feel free to pass it on, tweet, re-post, and share of Facebook if you like. I have to admit, some of the comments have been more interesting than my original post, so I welcome more people to read and respond.

The thing that bugs me about this issue is that a lot of the people who complain about whitewashing in media and entertainment are the same people who still pay to go to the cinema, still buy DVDs, still subscribe to cable.

The reason media producers whitewash characters is because they think that’s what audiences want to see. And you know what? They make money hand-over-fist every time they whitewash characters of color, so it pretty much validates their diversity-negligent casting decisions.

What do we do about this? If you disagree with whitewashing, stop validating this form of institutional racism with your money! Take your money out of the system! Stop giving your money to diversity-negligent entertainment They don’t deserve it. Stop going to the cinema, stop subscribing to cable television. There are other ways to consume that content without giving them your money. STOP rewarding bad behavior!

I agree that our ticket is our vote when it comes to what we’d like to see on stage and on screen. However, rather than boycott the entertainment industry wholesale, I believe being SELECTIVE about where you put your money is even more potent.

To stop consuming ALL cinema/media/art would be a tragedy. There’s a lot of fantastic stuff out there, and we can’t allow the institutionalized racism to keep us from viewing art. That would be akin to saying “You’re right, I don’t belong in that world, so I just won’t participate.” That wouldn’t be seeking to change the system, that would be admitting the system cannot be changed, and washing your hands of the whole thing. To me, like voting, non-voting won’t create change; it’s about WHO and WHAT you vote for that has any possibility of making a difference.

If you know a film or show is depicting minorities in a way you don’t agree with, don’t buy a ticket and tell others not to buy a ticket either. But if you hear about a movie that seeks to present stories of minorities with dignity, with nuance and with actual actors of color, GO SEE IT.

I think we are on the same page. However, if there’s a diversity-negligent bit of programming that you enjoy, there’s no reason to feel guilty about it. Just consume it in a way that doesn’t put money in the pockets of its producers.

If a work does absolutely nothing to advance the image of Asian American (especially men) in the media, it isn’t worth my money. I treat my media spending as judiciously as environmentalists seeking to mitigate their carbon footprints. So, to further the analogy: it is nearly impossible to completely eliminate one’s carbon footprint, so when one does engage in activities that give off CO2, the prudent thing would be to make it count toward something worthwhile as opposed to frivolous. By the same token, I cannot completely cut myself off from media and entertainment, but I can make sure that when I do consume media and entertainment, I make sure that my money only goes to content producers who advance the image of Asian Americans. That doesn’t mean that I won’t see movies like Argo or Iron Man 3. It just means that when I do see those films, I will be sure not to spend my money on any of that, if you know what I mean.

True, there is a lot of great content put there that just happens to not portray people of color in a humanized/positive/multidimensional light. I’m not saying we should ignore it. We should enjoy it. Just don’t pay for it. Catch my drift?